Vol. 12(3), pp. 154-167, July-September 2020 DOI: 10.5897/JDAE2019.1111 Article Number: FA0772464529 ISSN 2006-9774 Copyright ©2020 Journal of Development and Agricultural Author(s) retain the copyright of this article http://www.academicjournals.org/JDAE Economics Full Length Research Paper Characterization and analysis of farming system of Cheliya and Ilu Gelan districts of West Shewa Zone, Ethiopia Kifle Degefa*, Getachew Biru and Galmesa Abebe Bako Agricultural Research Center, P. O. Box 03, Bako, Ethiopia. Received 20 August, 2019; Accepted 31 October, 2019 The study characterizes and analyzes the existing farming system and identifies the production and marketing constraints of Cheliya and Ilu Gelan districts with cross-sectional data of 105 sample households. The farming system of the study areas is characterized as mixed farming systems with 59.1 and 27.44% contribution of crop and livestock, respectively for livelihood activities. From the survey results, disease (96.19%), shortage of grazing land (73.33%), feed shortage (48.57%), shortage of veterinary medicine (20.95%), shortage of water (18.10%) and lack of improved breeds (14.29%) were identified as major important constraints in livestock production. High transaction cost (71.43%), lack of capital (35.24%), lack of market information (23.81%), price and demand fluctuation (21.90%), lack of market linkage (14.29%) and unorganized marketing system (12.38%) were reported as major constraints in livestock marketing. Pests, high cost of inputs, shortage of land, weed infestation, shortage of inputs, low yield, poor quality of seed and poor soil fertility were identified as important crop production constraints. High transaction cost, low price output, lack of market information and lack of market linkage were summarized as major crop marketing constraints. Besides, soil erosion, soil fertility decline, water logging, soil acidity and termite were reported as important constraints in natural resources. Improving livestock productivity through improved breed, forage, control disease and control illegal livestock trade needs attention. Additionally, improving crop productivity through Integrated Pest Management (IPM), improved varieties, minimizing transaction cost, focusing on high value crop, expanding soil and water conservation, strengthening market information and linkage needs urgent concentration for interventions. Key words: Crop, farming system, livestock, natural resource. INTRODUCTION Agriculture is the most important sector in Ethiopia and Agriculture of the country areas has been characterized contributes significantly to the livelihoods of the study by low productivity due to land degradation, low areas with fastest growing economic (Paul et al., 2016). technological inputs, low soil fertility, weak institution *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]. Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Degefa et al. 155 linkage, lack of appropriate and effective agricultural from the population. In the first stage, West Shewa Zone was policies and strategies (Aklilu, 2015; Abush et al., 2011). stratified into two agro-ecologies which are high land and mid land Smallholder farmers in the study areas are not focused that are more homogenous than the total population. In the second stage, from each stratum one district was selected purposively on market oriented productions rather than substance based on agro-ecology, crop potential, livestock and natural production in dynamics of farming system. These resources. Accordingly, Cheliya district was selected from highland challenges call for characterization and analysis of and Ilu Gelan district was selected from midland agro-ecology. In farming system of the study areas to enhance production the third stage, two kebeles were selected purposively from each and productivity of crop, livestock and natural resources. district based on agro-ecology, crop potential, livestock, natural resources and accessibility. Finally, 105 sample households were A farming system is a unique and reasonably stable selected randomly using probability proportional to size. arrangement of farming enterprises that a household manages according to well defined practices in response to the physical, biological and socio-economic Data type and data collection analysis environment and in accordance with the household goals preferences and resources (Garnett et al., 2013). The The study was based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data were collected from the sample households using a semi- Ethiopian agriculture is dominated by about 11.7 million structural schedule by trained enumerators. In order to capture smallholders responsible for about 95% of the national better information of the study areas, qualitative data collection agricultural production while large farms contribute only such as focus group discussion was conducted using checklist 5% of the total production (CSA, 2017). This shows that schedule. Each group consisted of at least 20 considering gender the overall economy of the country and the food security and wealth status based on formal survey. Secondary data were of the majority of the population depend on small-scale also collected from published and unpublished materials from the respective West Shewa zone and districts for a comprehensive agriculture. report and rational conclusion. Farming systems comprise complex production units involving a diversity of mixed crops and livestock in order to meet the multiple objectives of the household (Dennis Data analysis methods et al., 2012) which is similar to the study areas. The Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, frequency combination of these activities depends on environmental and percentage were used to analyze quantitative data gathered conditions, resource endowment and the management from sampled households. The constraints were analyzed using skills of the farmer. Understanding the interdependence pair wise ranking to prioritize the constraints. of the elements of the farming system and maintaining the balance in the complex set of farmer's objectives are relevant to outlining promising development strategies for RESULTS AND DISCUSSION such systems (FAO, 2016). The classification of developing countries may be varied as available natural Sample household characteristics resource base, climate, landscape, farm size, tenure and organization, dominant pattern of farm activities and About 4.8% of the sample households were female household livelihood. This determines the intensity of headed with zero percentage observed in Ilu Gelan production, diversification of crops and other activities. District. Regarding technology adoption 28.69% of Therefore, a classification of the farming systems into sample households were model farmers and 71.40% homogeneous groups is proposed which allows the were followers. According to key informants interview analysis of the existing farm organization and the model the farmers adopted new technologies early than interrelationships among the system's elements and followers. Only 12.40% of sample households were rich evaluation effects of optimal allocation of farm resources in wealth status (Table 1). The average household size and technological innovations in the areas. across the surveyed households was 7.39 whereas the average number of adults was 5.91 using conversion factors which consider age and sex of the member. Specific objectives (1) To characterize and analyze the existing farming Land holding and acquisition methods system of major agro-ecology of the study areas; Land is the most important asset of sample household in (2) To identify the production constraints and Ethiopia and the availability of land permits the opportunities of the farming system for interventions. production of more crops (Bekele et al., 2017). The study indicated land tenure and how land under the farmers RESEARCH METHODOLOGY control was utilized. The survey result revealed that, the average of 2.04 ha per farmer was owned by sample Sampling techniques households and 1.56 ha per farmer was cultivated. The average grazing land, forest land and residential land is A multi-stage technique was employed to select sample households summarized in Table 2. About 0.42, 0.18 and 0.07 ha per 156 J. Dev. Agric. Econ. Table 1. Sample households’ characteristics. Cheliya (49) Ilu Gelan (56) Total (105) Variable Frequency % Frequency % Frequency % Male 44 89.80 56 100 100 95.2 Sex of household head Female 5 10.20 5 4.8 Rich 9 18.40 4 7.10 13 12.40 Wealthy status of Medium 31 63.30 37 66.10 68 64.80 household Poor 9 18.40 15 26.80 24 22.90 Model 13 26.50 17 30.40 30 28.60 Farmers’ category Follower 36 73.50 39 69.60 75 71.40 Source: Survey Results (2017). Table 2. Land ownership (hectare) and acquisition methods of sample households. Cheliya (49) Ilu Gelan (56) Total ( 105) Land category % Mean Std. Dev. % Mean Std. Dev. % Mean Std. Dev. Own land 100 1.66 1.62 100 2.37 1.68 100 2.04 1.68 Cultivated land 95.92 1.50 1.50 96.43 2.16 1.57 96.19 1.86 1.56 Grazing land 48.98 0.53 0.48 87.50 0.49 0.39 69.52 0.50 0.42 Forest land 22.45 0.17 0.06 35.71 0.23 0.22 29.52 0.21 0.18 Degraded land 4.08 0.25 0 0 0 0 1.90 0.25 0 Residential land 71.43 0.18 0.08 94.64 0.07 0.07 83.81 0.18 0.07 Rented in/out 20.41 0.57 0.28 14.29 1.22 1.49 17.14 0.86 0.99 Shared in/out 65.31 0.96 0.60 58.93 1.01 0.52 61.90 0.98 0.55 Source: Survey Results (2017). farmer were allocated for grazing land, forest and 64.80 and 5.70% own mobile phone and TV which are residential land, respectively. In the survey sites, fallow used as technology information disseminated to farmers land was not a common practice due to shortage of land. in the study areas (Table 3). There was minimum activity on land renting and more than half apply crop sharing system during the survey period (Table 2).